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In 2005, 212 ha of grapes were grown in Oklahoma and more than 30 licensed wineries were in operation. With this increase in grape growing and wine making comes the necessity to evaluate commercially appropriate cultivars. `Rubaiyat' was a cross between Seibel 5437 and `Bailey' made at Oklahoma State University by Herman Hinrichs in 1952. The overall genetic constitution of `Rubaiyat' (based on disomic inheritance) is 37.5% V. lincecumii, 31.25% V. vinifera, 18.75% V. labrusca, 6.25% V. rupestris, and 6.25% V. riparia. `Rubaiyat' is a dark blue-black grape that ripens in mid-August. The berries are medium-sized and round. The clusters are medium in size with a long shoulder. The vine has medium vigor and good to very good disease resistance. The juice is very dark red with about 19% sugars and tartaric acid levels of 0.63%. The wine is fruity and has good balance. A slight “foxy” flavor from the V. labrusca is sometimes evident in wine made from `Rubaiyat'. Currently, other hybrid grape cultivars such as `Chambourcin' are more popular for use as red wine varietals than `Rubaiyat'. However, in observation trials in Oklahoma, `Rubaiyat' compares favorably to `Chambourcin' in quality and may outyield it. Perhaps the greatest potential for `Rubaiyat' is as a teinturier, since it has the attribute of red flesh derived from its progenitor `Alicante Bouschet', a parent of `Alicante Ganzin'. `Rubaiyat' is not widely grown, but the potential exists for it to become an important cultivar for Oklahoma and surrounding states.
Passiflora incarnata L., commonly known as maypop, is a wild passion fruit native to many areas of the eastern and southern United States where the climate ranges from subtropical to temperate. Although P. incarnata has had little attention paid to it for breeding purposes, it could be used in breeding for fruit production and possibly contribute cold hardiness genes in combination with other Passiflora species. The study was performed in 2018, 2019, and 2021 at the Mississippi State University South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station in Poplarville, MS, United States. Passiflora propagules were collected from various locations: Florida (FL), Illinois (IL), Mississippi (MS), Missouri (MO), and Oklahoma (OK). Of the 122 flowers across the five P. incarnata genotypes from differing locations, none of them produced a fruit or had any indication of successful or partially successful fertilization when selfed, indicating strong self- incompatibility. If self-compatibility does exist in nature, it is likely to be rare. However, certain combinations of P. incarnata from different locations produced successful fruiting, including IL × MO (52% success), FL × MO (85%), FL × OK (80%), MS × OK (40%), MO × IL (50%), MO × OK (40%), and OK × MO (80%). The differences across provenances show that incompatibility exists within P. incarnata but can depend on location. Overall, fruit weight, fruit size, and soluble solids content measured in this study were similar to and, in some cases, greater than those previously reported. These differences help to illustrate the diversity within P. incarnata and the still-untapped potential for breeding improvements. The problem of self-incompatibility is complex and there is much to learn about how Passiflora species, especially P. incarnata, function. Much of the U.S. domestic market is not familiar with passion fruit, especially as a table fresh product. This could be a barrier to adoption, but it could also prove to be an opportunity to create a niche within the present market and expand it. Although maypop fruit quality is not equal to that of Passiflora edulis Sims, selecting superior wild genotypes with desirable attributes to be used in future intra- and interspecific breeding is possible based on the results of this study.
Since late Mar. 2020, many universities halted normal operations due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Although extension uses many different techniques to educate consumers, it has been slow to grasp the power of social media. Faced with a dilemma of using digital methods instead of in-person field days, short courses, and workshops, Twitter was a viable alternative, especially for broad audience engagement. Tweet threads were posted on Twitter every Monday morning from 6 Apr. to 8 June 2020. Each thread consisted of 10 tweets. A hashtag #YardFruits was used to start the thread and for later reference. For the first nine threads only one fruit species was discussed per thread. The final thread consisted of single tweets of several species. Engagement percentage did not differ over time but did differ among the crop species. Tweets that did not include a photo received less engagement (2.7%) than those that did include a photo (4.7%). My Twitter account saw a 6.5% increase in followers during the series. Grape (Vitis sp.), passion fruit (Passiflora sp.), fig (Ficus carica), and pear (Pyrus communis) threads had the least engagement and were different from the Other Fruits thread. All other threads were similar. Extension educators can grow their influence by using well-targeted, focused tweets and tweet threads, especially those that use hashtags and photos.
In this study, the nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) of six Rubus cultivars were sequenced, then compared with sequences of three Rubus species in Genbank. DNA sequencing revealed little genetic variation among blackberry cultivars, but ably revealed distinctions between blackberry and red raspberry genotypes. Analysis by maximum-parsimony and pairwise genetic distances confirmed the small variation among blackberry cultivars. The resulting sequences were analyzed for useful restriction sites and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis was conducted on a total of six cultivars to establish genetic variation. Digests were difficult to interpret due to heterogeneity at restriction sites.
Molecular markers have been used previously to identify linkages to important traits of interest. In this study two marker types, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and simple sequence repeats (SSR), were used to find molecular markers linked to two morphological traits in blackberry (Rubus L. subgenus Rubus). Thorniness and floricane fruiting are both qualitative, recessive traits that are inherited tetrasomically. A cross of `Prime-Jim'® × `Arapaho' was made to create a population that segregated for the two traits. A random sample of 98 plants from a population of 200 were assayed to find molecular markers that co-segregate with the two traits. Three putative markers were identified for the floricane fruiting trait (two SSRs and one RAPD; χ2 = 4.09 to 9.99, P < 0.001 to 0.043). Five potential RAPD markers were found for the thorny trait (χ2 = 3.88 to 10.23, P < 0.001 to 0.048). Identification of markers linked to these traits could potentially be useful in marker-assisted selection.
Passiflora is an important ornamental genus, mainly within tropical zones. However, two cold-hardy, North American Passiflora species exist. Previous work has been done to incorporate these species into breeding programs with some success. The intent of this study was to evaluate the extent of genetic diversity among five different Passiflora genotypes, including the two native North American species, P. incarnata L. and P. lutea L. Results indicate low genetic similarity among all genotypes with none at 50% or greater. P. incarnata and the ornamental cultivar `Lady Margaret' displayed the highest relationship at 49%. P. incarnata averaged 35.5% similarity with the other genotypes and P. lutea was 29.5%. Average overall similarity among all genotypes was 31.1%. These and other results show that the Passiflora genus has a high degree of genetic variation and breeding efforts could expand interest within North America.
In a database system that allows for quick and accurate querying, PediTrack generates pedigrees in an easily understandable format. Other pedigree programs are available commercially, but are often expensive, specific to certain organisms, or unadaptable for specific programmatic use. PediTrack allows a personal computer (PC) user with Microsoft Access version 2000 or higher to use the simple program without charge. This software is widely available and easily adaptable to a variety of breeding program functions. PediTrack does not perform any calculations, so the initial program size is small (<2 megabytes). The program consists solely of the basic framework for housing pedigree information and reporting pedigrees based on those records.
Paclobutrazol (PBZ) was applied to 6-year-old pecan (Carya illinoinensis) trees as a basal trunk drench (0, 30, 90, and 150 mg·cm−2 trunk cross-sectional area) in Dec. 2012. Terminal shoot growth was retarded for 1 year after a single application of PBZ. The total number of current season shoots showed a significant increase with 30- and 90-mg·cm−2 PBZ treatments. After PBZ application at 30, 60, and 90 mg·cm−2, the percentage of very short shoots (<5 cm) was 32.3%, 36.3%, and 32.3%, respectively, compared with 22.4% on control trees; the percentage of short shoots (5–15 cm) increased to 36.0%, 38.1%, and 43.5%, respectively. The percent of long shoots (>30 cm) was decreased to 7.4%, 5.1%, and 7.6%, respectively, after PBZ application, compared with 18.7% with control. Shoots varying from 5 to 30 cm in length accounted for at least 63.3% of all pistillate inflorescences the following spring.
The present study assessed the effect of photoperiod on budbreak of cuttings of three interspecific hybrid grape (Vitis) cultivars that had received different chilling hours. Stem cuttings were collected at 100-hour intervals of chilling (200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, and 800 hours) from the vineyard and kept in three growth chambers with daylengths of 8, 16, and 24 hours. Another group of cuttings were maintained in a greenhouse with a natural daylength range of 10.5–13 hours [8 Dec. 2017 to 4 May 2018 (average = 12 hours)]. Chilling requirements, days to budbreak, and budbreak rate were determined after plants were exposed to different chilling hours and daylengths. Results of our study demonstrated that the chilling requirements of all three cultivars were adequately reached at 600 hours or more. Increasing chilling exposure from 600 to 800 hours shortened the time to budbreak in all cultivars. Overall, ‘MidSouth’ had an average budbreak rate of 90% when receiving at least 600 hours chilling. ‘Blanc du bois’ and ‘Lake Emerald’ had 62% and 65% average budbreak, respectively. Longer days (24 hours) reduced time to budbreak by 14, 6, and 8 days, respectively, in ‘Blanc du bois’, ‘Lake Emerald’, and ‘MidSouth’ at 600 hours chilling. A combination of 24-hour photoperiod and chilling of 600 hours resulted in a maximum budbreak rate of 70%, 70%, and 100% in ‘Blanc du bois’, ‘Lake Emerald’, and ‘MidSouth’, respectively. Our results indicate that breaking dormancy may be controlled by both temperature and photoperiod in these three cultivars.
Junior college (JC) and community college (CC) programs offering viticulture and enology courses have proliferated in recent years in many states, especially outside of traditional grape growing regions. A survey was sent to 69 land-grant (LG) horticulture, viticulture, and enology specialists who may interact with JC and CC programs offering viticulture and enology courses. Forty answered for a response rate of 58%. Results indicated that most LG horticulture/viticulture programs are not interacting with the JC/CC programs and that LG specialists do not believe the education received by students of the JC/CC program is sufficient to create well-trained industry professionals. JC/CC programs are generally regarded as positive for the viticulture and enology industry by LG specialists, but some question the quality of instruction. Many LG respondents do not believe the JC/CC programs are impacting their own programs and do not see the JC/CC programs as competitors to their programs; however, documented actions of JC/CC programs would dictate otherwise, especially in the area of Cooperative Extension programming. LG viticulture and enology programs should no longer consider JC/CC programs as noncompetitors for funding and clientele interaction, especially in states with limited resources. LG programs should seek to develop appropriate partnerships with JC/CC programs to benefit the viticulture and enology community. However, any collaboration must be mutually beneficial, well-designed, well-coordinated, and conducted with reciprocal respect for each program.